Taking Things for Granted
My Journey to Become More Thankful

Photo Illustration by Sage Nenyue and Thinh Vu | VOX Staff

By Thinh Vu | VOX STAFF

I’m such a selfish person. I always want things, but I never give back to others. Within the last month, I’ve discovered my selfishness through the comments of others, and it has made me intolerant of myself. The only thing I want to do now is change so others won’t judge me as such an appalling person.

The other day, my friends and I were sitting in the cafeteria at school, and I was complaining about the distasteful burrito I had just received.

“I hate school lunch,” I said. “It’s so disgusting, and it never really fills up my stomach. I wish they had gourmet chefs here.”

“You’re always criticizing the school lunch,” my friend told me. “Why can’t you just be happy knowing you have food to eat?” It really had me thinking.

My brother has also said I ask for too many things from him and my friends. “Try giving back for once, or at least show your gratitude somehow,” he pleaded.

My Brother’s Generosity

After hearing this, I realized that I take for granted too many things that are kindly handed to me. For example, my brother offered to buy me an MP3 player last month. We browsed eBay to find a player that fit my standards. I wanted a thin, black MP3 with at least two gigabytes of storage. When we found one I liked, my brother put a bid on it, and I went to take a shower. After my shower, he showed me a more appealing MP3 player he had found online. He said if he didn’t win the auction for the first one we selected, he would buy the new one and give me his old music player — a purple iRiver with 20 gigabytes of storage.

“Sure, whatever,” I agreed nonchalantly. My brother didn’t win the auction, so he decided to buy the MP3 player he liked and give me his iRiver.

“Aww …” I whined in disagreement. It seemed like he purposely found a better MP3 player just to pass the used one on to me.

“Would you rather have nothing?” he asked me irritably. “‘Cause I can give you nothing.” My whining made him a little angry. Looking back at it now, I shouldn’t have complained because he had given me more than I asked for in the first place. My brother had given me a 20-gigabyte instead of a two-gigabyte MP3 player, and whereas I didn’t have a music player before, he gave me one of my own.

My Habit of Complaining

I realized I had been complaining about almost everything anyone gave me. Every time I ate food I didn’t like, received hand-me-down electronics or ugly clothing, I complained. The worst time I complained was during my birthday this past summer. My friends spent time baking a cake for me, and when they brought out the cake, it looked grotesque with irregular shaping and odd coloring. I refused to eat it.

I remember someone saying, “Oh my gosh! They spent all that time planning this event for you and you’re not even going to eat it? You’re so unappreciative.” I felt bad about myself and started thinking that no matter how gross or odd I thought the cake was, I should have thanked my friends for their hard work and eaten it with feelings of sincerity and happiness. Feeling remorseful, I stopped one of my friends as he was about to throw away the remaining piece. Then I took a bite. It tasted good. I had complained for no reason instead of stopping to recognize how kind my family and friends have been to me.

I’m not sure when I started to act ungratefully, but I remember adults spoiling me with things since I was 5 years old. Maybe that’s why I always want more. In the past, I’ve felt jealous when my friends received electronics, toys and games from their family, and that has made me want better quality things to impress them. I don’t think I ever meant to be ungrateful on purpose. Showing ungratefulness just came by impulse because my personality is impulsive by nature.

Learning to be More Grateful

One thing I never really analyzed was how I felt when I gave something to someone and they thanked me for it. It makes me very happy when I give someone a gift I know he or she likes. There seems to be great disparity between how other people act when I give them gifts and how I act when someone gives me gifts. People always show gratefulness; I made my brother and friends feel bad when they didn’t get me what I wanted. I don’t want to hurt people. I want them to feel happy that they are committing acts of selflessness when they give me things. I want to show that I really like the presents they give me.

Now I know I should have kept my comments to myself and appreciated those gifts anyway. So from now on, I will try to accept everything and show people more gratitude. I plan on taking smalls steps to accomplish my goal. I will accept a gift for what it means to the person who gave it because it is the thought that counts. I will thank the gift-giver and embrace him or her with a warm hug. My goal is to make myself a more altruistic and no longer greedy person.

Thinh is a sophomore at Tri-Cities High and likes writing about himself in the third person.